Part of my tree

I took these pictures back in March when I went to visit new Mama and Daddy ,Stephanie and Tom and watch them in their bliss with Anastasia. Who I am over the moon in love with . So I know they besides themselevs in love.

One day while visiting we went for a walk down to the park and passed this tree. Something about the tree struck me. The way the branches intertwine wrap around each other. Much like the lives of those we come in contact with some branches are part of us in small ways and others wrap around us in large ways. But no matter what big or small they are part of us.

Some of you are part of my tree in large ways others in small but still you have in one form another affected me.

Thank you for being part of my tree.

SHHHHH

Things on the home front have been rather quite. I continue to avoid the gym I am paying for each month like the black plague. I finally put the heath insurance I have to good use and this week I had my annual psychical and today a mammogram. First ones in five years. I am poor as a church mouse and have been eating at home and taking my lunch to work. I have lost 7 pounds. Tomorrow I am going to hit the flower beds and pull some weeds and hope Anthony gets over here with his chain saw to cut down a dead tree and help me get some hack berry bushes out of the flower beds before they tear up my foundation.

What else ah yes the big thing You who Served this Country with pride and with that services made the ultimate sacrifice. I honor you

Empty space

With the vacant space in my home now I have had several people inquire about renting a room. Just to hanging out for a few months while they look for another place or buy a home and I am to say the least gun shy.I have been left royally screwed by all but two people who have lived in this house. My sister and my friend Tony. I more or less screwed Tony by making bad choices in other roommates.

So as much as the money would help me right now I can't do it. I can not afford to trust anyone else in my home right now. I have a friend who will move in at the end of Oct frist of Nov but for now it is just going to have to be me. Because I just got screwed by someone I had known for 10 years and he didn't even leave a tip on the night stand.

Another one bites the dust

Single and 39. It is not as fun as one might think. But I was having fun about 2 weeks ago when I went to a beer tasting. I have been a part of The Nashville Beer Society for some time but when the meetings roll around on Thursdays once a month I am wiped out and don’t even want to think about leaving. But this was at a home and the environment was going to be relaxed and it was on Friday. So I ran by the J. Barleycorns Beer Store and grabbed a six pack of Smithwicks , one of my new favorite beers.
Oh my point. I meet a lot really nice people and was my normal funny as hell self. A handsome man had taken a set on my right and was laughing at all my jokes he moved closer to me and would lean in and laugh as I joked my way though. He thought my joke about learning how to fold laundry in prison was a gas. Each time he would get up to get something else to eat or drink he would return to the spot he was at where I was holding court. The as the evening came to close he said goodnight to everyone ad was gone. As in you turn and are like where the hell did he go? My friend who runs the Beer Society asked “He didn’t get your number?, I sure thought he would have he was really into you.”
I was like umm what did I do? I SWEAR I didn’t bite him.

So yet another straight man runs screaming from me. At least this one stayed for a beer.
On a sad note the next day the rain and floods hit. The host and hostess had their neighborhood flood they had water about 3 ½ feet at their backdoor. As I understand they were able to sand bag and keep it out of their home. Their neighbors were not so lucky.

The if question

If there were anybody in your life past or present and you could ask him or her any question and get an honest no hold barge answer. Who would you ask? What would you ask? Do you really think you would want to know the truth? Do you think it is possible that once you had your answer you would really have been better off staying in the dark? What would you hope to gain by knowing?
If you were the one being asked and the person told you to be honest could you do it? Who would you most fear asking you for the truth?

Left

Some old roommates I am grateful for others not so much. Today I am grateful for Jonathon when moving left me enough co axle cable and cable cable to rewire a house. So on Wednesday when my wireless router went on the fritz and it was going to take Comcast a week to 10 days to send me a new one I was needless to say I hyperventilating. Because if you don’t know I am ADDICTED to my computer. It is my friend. Not my best friend but I am rather attached to it. So I went up in my attic and pulled down enough co axel to run from on end of the house to the other and back again. I have this co axel running from the den through the foyer up the stairs and into a puddle on the floor by the couch in the living room. I am hooked into the World Wide Web. Though I might trip on the cable going down the stairs and break my neck but I am on line. That’s all that matters right?

Joyous Guilt

I love this town. I know there are wonderful places all over the world. I know there are places where I can go and find my center and get back to me. But this place, this city, this state is nothing short of amazing.
We have complained that the National media has not really been focusing on us in our desperate time of need. But why would they? Before the rain even stopped neighbors grabbed their boats and rushed to areas where there was a need rescuing people trapped in their homes and hotels. Others grabbed food and clothes and raced to shelters that had opened and were all ready filled to capacity to offer comfort. All the inmates at the Sheriff’s Department volunteered to start filling sand bags and as the water rose others gathered at a business development and stacked sand bags to hold back the onset of the rising river. Also as the water rose in this same area people moved quickly to get to the city’s food bank located here and save the food supplies that were going to be so desperately needed.

Two arrests have been made for looting. They were found going through the debris on the side of the road. Just two. We are coming together and did before FEMA ever touched down. No one waited for help to come we helped ourselves. The volunteer organization Hands on Nashville had their web site crash with people looking for ways to help and they are overwhelmed with volunteers. It is beyond heart warming.

I hope it does not stop. It is going to take the areas affected a long time to come back. Most of the people affected did not have flood insurance because they didn’t live in a flood plain. They have lost everything. Jobs have been lost as businesses were wiped out when the floodwaters came through the doors but we will get through this.

I have been beyond blessed during all of this. I have had no damage might have lost a little yard as it was washed into the street but I am fine and for that I am grateful and filled with guilt when I have so much and others have so little.

Flood

I have never seen it this bad. I remember the flood of 1979 it was not like this.

The first two shots are of I-24 at the Blue Hole Road overpass East traveling out of Nashville toward Chattanooga. If you ask sweetly I have a picture of where the building seen floating down 24 once stood.

The third shot is of my street. There is a mail box on the left and the water mark got to the one foot on the post. A neighbor walked out near the mailbox and the water was hip high. He was not at the deepest point of the water. Thank God I suffered no damage.

All your prayers have been felt. Please keep them coming.